Re: *pu:tium prea-pu:tium sala-pu:tium

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote:

>
> On 2008-01-22 17:01, fournet.arnaud wrote:
>
> > I have in Meillet :
> > salaputt-ium [with 2 -tt-] "a midget, a dwarf"
> > Is it the word you are talking about ?
>
> Yes. It's a hapax legomenon, occurring only once, in Catullus 53.

In the

> manuscripts we find <salapantium> <salapputium> and <salaputtium>;

the

> first has been explaines as a mistaken reading of <salapa\u/tium>,

i.e.

> <salapatium> corrected to <salaputium>. The last reading has

generally

> been accepted by modern editors as the final emendation. The /u:/

is

> long. The Oscan-looking cognomen <Salaputis> (whose purely Latin
> equivalent would have been something like *Salpu:tius) confirms the

reading.

>
> If Weiss is right -- and his argumentation is very convincing --

the

> meaning 'midget', deduced from the context, is completely wrong.

The

> line in question should be translated roughly thus: "Great gods,

what

> eloquent REFOINMENT!" (making fun of Calvus's substandard accent).

Of

> course Catullus was never averse to a dirty joke and if the word
> *pu:t... 'penis' was in use at the time, there _may_ be an extra

oscene

> pun on that, but we just can't be sure. Soemtimes you can suspect

double

> entendre but can't prove it. When somebody mentions "kicking

against the

> pricks" in Modern English, is it just a Biblical quotation or an

obscene

> allusion?
>
> Piotr

I don't care about any of Weiss' speculations, once Seneca (Sr.) that
was a native Latin speaker, clearly explains the situation:

I need to quote Seneca again for that ones that skip his words:

Seneca the Elder
----------------
(Controv. 7.4)
"Erat enim parvolus statura propter
quod etiam Catullus
in hendecasyllabis vocat illum
salaputium disertum
"

So Seneca Sr. says that it means a "runt" or small fellow, which is
good enough

Based on what Seneca said, the semantism of salapu:tium goes together
with praepu:tium

Marius


P.S. Seems that "Herodotus case" ("a guy that told us some false
histories" based on the assertions of some of our today scholars)
is "repeated and repeated again" with different great figures of the
Antiquity...